There exist several traditional and popular non-computerized children's games where the child constructs patterns by placing colored game pieces in some interesting configuration on a board. The game pieces can include blocks, pins with colored heads, colored light bulbs that light up when placed on the board, and other types of colored elements. Specific commercial products of these type of games ("pattern games") include "Lite-Brite" by the Milton Bradley Corp., "Sparkle Lights" by the Ohio Arts Corp., "Fantastic Sand" by the Kenner Corp., and "Lego" blocks by the Lego Corp.
Although there is no inherent limitation on the kinds of patterns that can be built using these games, specific templates of interesting patterns (such as animals, clowns, cars, etc.) are often provided to enable the child to actually construct something that is recognizable. However, these templates typically are included with the games, and are not personal to the child. Thus, these pattern games generally offer either total freedom of creation (if the templates are not used), which allows most children to create very trivial results, or a fixed non-personalized type of creation which allows more interesting results (if the templates are used).
Additionally, other applications besides children's games utilize placing colored pieces on a template. Examples include: crafts (e.g., crochet, quilting, art, etc.), architecture (e.g., tiled building decorations, sports fields, etc.), and graphical design (e.g., large billboard advertisements, etc.).
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for a method and apparatus for creating a personalized template that can be used with a children's pattern game or any other application that includes colored pieces that can be placed on the template.